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| Cecilia Tan |
GRAY: What kind of research do you do for your books?
My entire life ends up
being inadvertent research. Since I've been in the BDSM lifestyle for over 20
years if I happen to want to include a kink in a book or story I can usually
find someone who can tell me about it. The details from life that make it into
books aren't necessarily what you can read in how-to books: the way my socks
feel as my lover pulls them off my feet, shower sex can make me lightheaded,
the way lube tastes when you accidentally get it in your mouth... I end up
researching mundane things like floor plans for the buildings where scenes are
set, the time of sunrise, and weather.
GRAY: For any readers who may not have read any of
your books, can you just give us a little sneak peek into your world (i.e. the
type of genre you write, type of stories you like to write....etc)?
I write erotic romance
and erotic science fiction and fantasy. My career can be encapsulated in a
nutshell between my first book and my most recent one. My first book was
self-published in 1992 and it was entitled Telepaths Don't Need Safewords.
My most recent trilogy (Slow Surrender, Slow Seduction, Slow Satisfaction).
was a BDSM billionaire romance published by one of the world's largest
publishers (Hachette) that was sold in Target stores. And I've been everywhere
in between. I've been an activist and educator in the BDSM community for most
of the 23 years since Telepaths was published.
GRAY: What would you like readers to take away with
them once they finish one of your books?
I'd like them to feel
like they're not alone, and like their desires are perfectly okay.
GRAY: Is there a story that you’d like to tell but you
think the world isn’t ready to receive it?
Not at the moment? I
feel like the world is finally ready to receive the stories I've been telling
for the past 20 years. The world is finally catching up to me!
GRAY: What is the strangest source of writing
inspiration you’ve ever had?
I've written stories
during writing retreats where each person in the room pulls a word out of a hat
and has to write a story based on it. One year I pulled "fire" and I
wrote "Her Lover is a Flame" on the spot, which was published in
Rachel Kramer Bussell's The Big Book of Orgasms.
GRAY: What authors have influenced you most?
My strongest influences
were probably the science fiction writers I read as a kid: Roger Zelazny and
Marion Zimmer Bradley.
GRAY: What’s your strongest point as a writer?
I get very deep into
the heads of my characters and create an immersive sensual experience for the
reader. That makes me not only an effective erotica writer but for other
genres, too.
GRAY: If your muse were to talk behind your back, what
secrets would he/she tell?
He'd tell you I need to
get out from behind the keyboard and get laid more. The past couple of years
there's been much more virtual sex than real world sex! But deadlines, man,
deadlines!
GRAY: What is the last line of your last WIP you
worked on that you wrote?
From TAKING THE LEAD,
the BDSM novel I'm working on for Hachette right now: "Okay, I admitted to myself that Axel Hawke
had been hot, and sexy, and cute...and good at what he did...but I couldn't
tell him the real reason I didn't want to go down that road with him."
GRAY: Tell us where to find
you: website(s), publisher’s page(s), blog(s), Facebook page(s), etc. List them
all!
Website & blog:
http://blog.ceciliatan.com
Tumblr: @ceciliatan
Twitter: @ceciliatan
Instagram: @ctanwriter
Publisher pages:
Hachette:
http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/authors/cecilia-tan/
Riverdale Avenue Books:
http://riverdaleavebooks.com/Books?Filters.SelectedAuthorId=20
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| I'm looking forward to meeting everyone at BDSMWriters Con! |
DESCRIPTION:
Combining
the freshness and excitement of new adult romance with a paranormal setting
reminiscent of Harry Potter, The Tower and the Tears is the second
volume in Cecilia Tan's Magic University series.
Kyle
is a college sophomore worrying about the usual things students do, like what
he’s going to major in and getting along with his dorm mates, but he attends a
most unusual college. He’s a student at Veritas, the hidden magical university
inside Harvard. Kyle finds he has a talent for sex magic, and when Ciara, a
girl in his sex magic class, has a crush on him and needs a practice partner,
he looks like he's in for a very pleasurable semester of study. But can Kyle
pass the grueling tests necessary to be accepted into the Esoteric Arts
program, including the bisexuality requirement?
When a professor is mysteriously attacked,
Kyle finds himself embroiled in a mystery deeper than university department
politics. Someone has been stealing magical artifacts and the dean suspects
Ciara, sending Kyle on a quest to discover the real culprit. Kyle will learn
sizzling sexual technique and unleash powerful magic on his incredible erotic
journey, but is the study of sex really the route to true love? Perhaps what
Kyle needs to learn about most is himself.
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| Buy Link |
In
this series, our hero, Kyle Wadsworth, doesn't know he's magical until he shows
up on the Harvard campus and can see buildings that mundane students cannot see,
and is quickly matriculated into Veritas, the hidden magical university. This
excerpt comes from Kyle's sophomore year, when he's decided to declare his
major in Esoteric Arts, aka sex magic. Just to take a class in the Esoteric
Arts, students have to be certified STD-free, of course, and to be accepted
into the department Kyle has to pass three tests, and the second test is one
they call the Divining Rod. He's been told that his task will be to be
blindfolded and have sex with four women, then afterward name which of the four
elements, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water each of them represents.
Chapter
Ten
Kyle's test was set
for four in the afternoon on the same day his prophecy paper was due. At 3:45
he found himself running across campus to drop the paper off on time, then
running back to try to get to Sassamon by four. Great, I'm going to be late
for my own orgy.
He hurried down the
stairs, through the ritual chamber where the cracked Founding Stone lay so
accusingly, evidence of how disastrously his first test had gone. He burst
through the doors to find Dean Bell, Master Brandish, and Professor Hart all
huddled together on the dais. Master Brandish looked up in relief.
"Sorry I
wasn't here sooner," Kyle began, but she waved him to silence.
"Just get prepared,"
she said.
Kyle looked around,
wondering where the women were. Oh, but of course they wouldn't be letting him
see them. They'd blindfold him first. "Right." He could hear Dean
Bell muttering to Professor Hart about ritual preparations and musing that
perhaps Kyle had slept through the class on the value of meditation beforehand.
Hart was stroking his mustache and nodding, but something gave Kyle the
impression that he might not have been listening to what the dean was saying.
That heartened him
a little. He stripped out of his clothes, folding them over one of the chairs
in the front row, glad they had made the room comfortably warm. He took a deep
breath to center himself and looked up.
Dean Bell was
glaring down at him, a strip of black cloth in his hand. "You two may be
seated," he said.
Hart stepped down
off the platform, but Master Brandish snatched the cloth herself and made a
shooing gesture. Kyle could almost imagine the sparks sizzling in the line
between their eyes as they glared at one another, but neither one said
anything, and Dean Bell went and took a seat in the front row as well.
"Kyle,"
Master Brandish said, her voice gentler than he expected.
He walked to the
center of the padding where she indicated.
"You might
want to sit before I blindfold you," she said, "so you don't lose
your balance when you go to lie down."
"Lie
down?" He looked her in the eye.
Her eyes narrowed.
"Is that a problem? We decided on one of the slightly stricter forms of
the test."
Kyle pressed his
lips together, fighting to keep his expression neutral with Bell and Hart
watching. "I thought you were going to put mittens on me."
She shook her head.
"You won't have the use of your hands at all. But you won't need
them."
"Are you going
to tie me down?"
He must have looked
or sounded more distressed than he thought he was letting on, because she put a
hand on his upper arm. "We were going to, but if that's too much, you can
just keep them behind your head."
"I'd much
prefer that," Kyle said.
"It's easier
to be bound," Master Brandish advised softly. "If you forget and
reach for—"
"I won't
forget."
She searched his
face for a few moments more. "Very well. You'll still need this." She
held up the blindfold.
"I know."
He turned his back to her, then and she slipped it over his eyes. The cloth was
softer than he expected, and she tied it snug. Then he remembered he was
supposed to sit down first, but it was too late. He sank to his knees as she
backed away. The padding was cool and smooth, and he placed a hand on it before
lying back with his knees bent.
"Tell us when
you're ready to begin the test, Mr. Wadsworth," came Master Brandish's
voice from a few yards away.
Kyle took a deep
breath. "I am ready."
He heard a stifled
laugh that had to be Hart.
"I mean when all
of you is ready," Master Brandish clarified.
Oh. Kyle realized
suddenly that his cock wasn't even remotely hard. Right. He was about to reach
out to stroke himself when he thought he might earn more points if he did it
another way. The test hadn't started yet, but he settled his hands behind his
head and took a slower breath, letting it out as if he were blowing on a hot
coal to stoke a fire.
He heard an
appreciative sigh from the judges as he came to full length, but he couldn't
tell which one of them it had been. Then the sound of a door opening was
followed by a murmur of happy female voices, cut short by what had to be a
gesture or signal of some sort. He could hear their footsteps as they came up
onto the platform, the vibrations as they walked around him in a circle. Had
they discussed in advance who would go first? And how many of them were there?
It sounded like at least three, but it was probably four.
He felt the heat of
a body near him and the shift in the padding as one of them knelt next to him.
Cool fingers brushed up his shaft and played over the head, and he gasped as he
felt her wet tongue travel up the length and take the head into her mouth.
Maybe this test
wasn't going to be so bad after all. That felt wonderful, and he no longer
needed to concentrate to maintain an erection. Quite wonderful. It was over too
soon, but he didn't feel bereft of her mouth for long as she straddled him and
sank down onto him with a gasp, all in one motion. He could feel her thighs on
either side of him. Pillowy like Marjory. But the way she took him in, she had
to be a Cup like Ciara. And a Cup was surely water.
But he shouldn't
say anything yet. He hadn't even compared her yet to the others. He wondered if
they were all as ready as she was? But of course they were. They had probably
been preparing themselves in another room. They had known the style of the test
better than he had, probably.
He'd been so
prepared to make love to each of them, to discover what made each one wet, to
find out what angle of penetration she preferred, what she felt like when she
came. Now he wasn't sure he'd even find out that last, as a small bell chimed
from the judges, and the woman atop him climbed off, and another one took her
place immediately.
This one rubbed
herself up and down the shaft a few times before easing the tip of him into
her. Her nails dug into his chest as she sank a few inches and stopped, as if
adjusting to his size? He wanted to reach up to help support her, to apologize
if it was painful, but he could not tell why she had stopped there. She lowered
herself slowly, fingernails imprinting crescents into his skin, but when she
came to rest, she ground herself against him, rolling her hips and pulling
against his chest so that she dragged her clit up and down in his pubic hair.
Kyle couldn't help it. He moaned. He could feel her getting close to her orgasm
and that only pushed his own arousal higher.
He wasn't in any
danger of coming yet. Not after the training he'd been through for the previous
test. But how he wished he could look up into her face and share the ecstasy he
was feeling with her. She panted hard as she worked herself to climax, puffs of
her breath caressing his chest and neck.
She came with a
cry, shuddering against him and, he suspected, drawing blood. A sword?
he suddenly wondered. The four Tarot suits were each associated with elements,
weren't they? A cup, a sword—would the other two be a wand and a coin? What
element were the swords, anyway? He racked his brain as the bell rang and she
dismounted with a reluctant noise. Coins were earth, wands were fire, and cups
were water, so swords had to be air? Was that right? Or was it swords that were
fire and wands were air?
Swords were
conflict and trouble and that sounded like fire, didn't it? But no, he was sure
the wands were fire, because they were depicted in some of the decks he'd seen
lit like candles. Air—she had been air.
The next woman was
atop him then. For a moment he thought it was the first woman again, her soft
thighs and legs pressing against his sides. But this one leaned forward on all
fours and he felt her ample breasts brushing softly over his chest. Her
hindquarters ground against him but she hadn't pushed back onto him yet. He
could feel the slick wetness of her coating him, then her hand as she reached
back to steady his cock, pressing back onto him.
She felt impossibly
tight as she enveloped him, then began to rock back and forth with long, slow
strokes. Kyle sucked in a breath as two realizations hit him at the same time.
This was Marjory. He could hear her breathing and her scent was familiar, and—and
she was taking him into her ass. Marjory was earth, without any doubt.
She hadn't come yet
when the bell rang, and there was a pause before the next woman. He gasped as
something cool and wet worked up and down his shaft, a disinfecting wipe. Then
someone's hand with some kind of lotion. He sucked in a breath at the new
sensation, and how his cock only seemed to be getting more sensitive with each
stroke.
As she climbed atop
him, a scent like sweet incense reached him. Where there's smoke, there's
fire? he thought. Then he realized what the scent was. Not incense, but
cinnamon.
The growing tingle
in his cock made sense now. She had coated him with something that had set him
to throbbing, and that throbbing only grew more intense as she impaled herself.
"Professor
Pendragon," he gasped.
"Got it in
one," she said, and he could picture the elated grin on her face. She
began to ride him, up and down on his cock. "And what am I?"
"Fire," he
gasped, as he felt her tightening around him. Behind the blindfold he saw
stars.
"And do you
need a go at the others again?" Her pace was picking up.
"No. Before
you, earth, before her, air, and first was wat—ahhh!" He found himself
suddenly on the verge of orgasm.
"Very good.
You'll no doubt find it a mercy to have release after all this
stimulation," she said. "Judges?"
"Yes,
yes," came Bell's bored-sounding voice. "Just don't break anything
this time."
It didn't occur to
Kyle until later that he could have moved his hands. He could have taken the
blindfold off himself, could have reached up to touch her—he didn't have to lie
there like some kind of ritual sacrifice.
But at the time he
couldn't think. All he could do was cry out as Professor Pendragon wrung his
orgasm out of him, then came to release herself a few seconds later, riding his
still-hard cock. He might have blacked out for a few seconds afterward; he
wasn't sure. He felt someone kiss him sweetly on the lips. Cinnamon. Had to be
her.
But it was Marjory
who took the blindfold off him and wrapped a blanket around his shoulders and
made him take a sip from a bottle of water. When he returned to awareness
enough to look around, the room was empty.
He clutched the
blanket around himself. "Hold me?"
On
sale at:
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/510143
Amazon:
http://amzn.com/B00RW7SERU
Barnes
& Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-tower-and-the-tears-cecilia-tan/1121045794?ean=2940149889327
Thank you being my guest Cecilia! I'm so looking forward to meeting you in person at the BDSM Writers Con in NYC!!
Until next time my pets...be safe and play nice...
Gray
